Trapped Into Marriage (7 page)

Nick had felt secure in his camouflage, believing all these months that his red-hot desire for this beautiful, vivacious woman would fade – and yet he suddenly realized he’d only been postponing the torture. Now, he couldn’t hide the way she made him feel because his own body was betraying him even then.

He hitched his hands beneath the hem of her top, and heard her catch her breath. But she did nothing to stop him when he trailed his seeking fingers upwards. And when the full, heavy mounds of her breasts spilled into his palms, Keyonna let out a shuddery moan.

He felt the peak of her breasts squeeze into tight nubs as he grazed them with his fingertips, and his gaze lifted and locked with hers to find her staring at him dazedly. Nick knew she could see the answering torment mirrored in his eyes which would tell her in no uncertain terms that they were in this phase of sensual abandon together…

Chapter Seven

Only in her deepest fantasies had a man touched her with such skillful passion. Keyonna had only ever dreamed to find someone who could induce a desperate need
in her
to be consumed; to feel his manhood invading her
hidden sheathe
, claiming her for his own.

“Nick,” she gasped, shocked by the giddy heat she felt when his hands squeezed hard on her breasts. He showed no reserve; almost like he knew she wouldn’t fight this; fight him. Keyonna had no intention of fighting. Her body
craved
this like its next breath. Craved his fingertips rolling her shameless little nipples within them; hungered for his lips mouthing their way along her collarbone and then down the exposed slope of her cleavage.

“I want my mouth here…and then here,” Nick told her plainly, his fingers squeezing on her nipple while his other hand slipped in between her thighs to cup her clothed mound.

Keyonna wondered if she could possibly get more
slippery with arousal
.Her
heart
might find him an exasperating man of contrasts whom she so much wanted to hate. But her body…good grief. Every living cell she had desired him with a force that made her knees weak.

“And then I want your legs, wrapped around my neck as I drive my cock deep inside you. Again and again,” he rasped, his lips like a brand over her soft flesh. “I want you looking at me while I fuck you, watching me slide in and out of your hot pussy. I want, Keyonna. I want you.”

Keyonna couldn’t stop shivering at his raunchy, raspy words of desire. He had her all wet and willing to succumb to whatever he had in mind – no matter how wild and wicked.

Her head flung back as his mouth sealed over her nipple through the fabric of her top. Even with the barrier, she felt the heat of his mouth like a ring of fire wrapped around her nipple. His teeth sank through the thin cotton and marked her flesh, causing her to cry out his name. Her legs started to buckle and it was a relief when he caught her up easily, nuzzling the cleft of her breasts while his arms wrapped around her thighs, lifting her in the air.

Nick deposited her on the nearest bar stool, and suddenly arched over her to grab her lips in another grinding kiss that was all wet, sloppy tongue. Shit. A kiss like that would have a woman shoving her man close, grabbing his rock-hard cock and impaling herself before riding him to a mutually satisfying finish.

Keyonna felt his hands on her knees and didn’t think twice about spreading her legs open. She was panting against his lips as his fingers began to work on the buttons of her shorts while her fingers were busy pushing off his jacket and tugging down his tie.

Neither of them could hide the fact that they were burning to get naked and have some seriously hot sex. It had been sizzling in the air between them for months as they’d skirted each other in the business arena. The sophisticated, hardworking Keyonna Hayes and the dark, enigmatic Nick Vitale, both strong personalities but with so many other differences. Not just because she was black and he was white,
n
or the variance between their finances considering he was mega rich.

They say opposites attract and Keyonna had no doubt Nick was dissimilar in many more ways than she could count. She couldn’t act as cold and calculating as he undoubtedly could. And it wasn’t so easy for her to hold back her attraction for him that surpassed any she’d felt for any man before. He had great power over her emotions and sensations while Keyonna could never say for sure where she stood with him. What was this, just physical, or could there be something deeper?

Keyonna didn’t want to dwell on that. For now, her body sought fulfillment – a long deprived sexual release that she felt sure Nick could provide with effortless skill. Eager to discover more, Keyonna shed all shyness and slid her hands down his chest to the bulge at his trouser front. Her hand came in contact with an impressively thick and lengthy erection and she veritably purred, hearing his echoing groan of approval. Her mind suddenly clouded over with white smokes of lust and it took many seconds to realize her phone was ringing.

Shit!
No
. Nick was biting and sucking on her neck, his hand shoved inside her unbuttoned shorts and massaging her pussy over her now drenched panties. Goodness. She squeezed harder on his massive arousal and gloried in his feral hiss of pleasure. But that infernal phone just wouldn’t stop ringing. Dammit.

Keyonna felt Nick’s touch grow more insistent as he stroked her swollen, silk-clad cunt while his other hand fondled her tits beneath her top. His tongue grazed the skin of her throat and that sensitized region sent ecstasy spiraling in waves over her senses. And yet the grating peal of the telephone finally broke into their passion-crazed fog and she felt Nick swear underneath his breath even as Keyonna pushed away from him, both of them breathing harshly.

Nick grinned, pulling back. “Saved by the bell, hmm?”

Keyonna could only gape at him for a moment. Here she was trying to remember her own name while her brain struggled to recover from a shutdown – and he was making jokes. Damn.

“Since the damned thing has inconveniently cut in, you might as well answer it,” he told her drily, reluctantly releasing her and backing away. Keyonna straightened her disheveled top, fighting for composure before wordlessly going to where the phone lay on a side table. She was conscious of how shaky her legs were and how her nerve-endings still throbbed with need.

Her hand was trembling slightly as she raised the phone to her ear, aware of Nick watching her every move, his ravenous gaze almost the undoing of her.

“Hello?” she croaked, looking away from Nick’s piercing black eyes.

“Keyonna?”

Keyonna snapped to attention at the sound of that familiar voice, and made the error of saying his name out loud. “Mark!”

From the corner of her eye, Keyonna saw Nick stiffen.

“Have you seen the latest edition of Very VIP magazine?” Keyonna heard Mark ask, his voice a mixture of shock and anger.

Turning her back quickly to Nick, Keyonna replied, “Um, no…but I’ve got a good idea what’s in it. Mark, I never knew you even read that type of sensationalist crap.”

“I don’t as a rule; I hate these gossip rags but Trisha positively devours them – she was the one who showed me this current edition. And well, I’m flabbergasted. I didn’t realize this guy was some famous dude – Nick Vitale. He’s one of the richest property developers in the city – and he was engaged, Keyonna!”

His tone was accusatory, and Keyonna was about to explain that she’d had no clue back then that Nick had been ‘taken’, so to speak. Meanwhile she was fuming; so Trisha had shown him the magazine, huh? That interfering, spiteful little…

But before Keyonna could say a word in her defense, Mark continued, “Keyonna, don’t let his fame and wealth blind you. And just because he’s white doesn’t make him a better catch than me, baby. Nor do his billions. What matters is I’m the man who loves you truly, always have. You just need to…”

Keyonna could not believe her ears. “Are we still on that topic, Mark? For goodness sake! I can’t…marry…you!” she spelled out in exasperation, and then gasped in surprise as the receiver was wrenched from her grip.

Keyonna was open-mouthed as Nick, now stood next to her, barked into the phone. “I thought I told you to back off.”

Nick’s tone was dark and menacing, and Keyonna stared at him in mortification as he added gruffly, “The lady said ‘no’. Many times. When exactly are you going to get the message? Because I’m very well of the mind to come over there and
make
you.” Moments later, after getting no response, he banged the phone back on its cradle.

“There. That should get rid of him,” Nick muttered as he dusted off his hands with self-satisfaction.

Keyonna was scowling. “Wow. Thanks for butting in – again,” were her biting words. “And since when did you change sides? I thought you sympathized with him.”

Nick’s thinned lips eased into a small, sensuous smile as he reached out to take hold of her pointy chin. “That was before I decided I want you for myself,” he rumbled, tilting her face up and planting a warm, possessive kiss on her lips that stole her breath.

Long seconds later, he lifted his head to look piercingly into her wide, mesmerized eyes, saying deeply, “You’re not marrying Mark, Keyonna…because you’ll be walking down the aisle with me.”

***

Keyonna stepped back, away from his distracting touch, his tempting lips. Her heart turned cold against the warm entitlement in his tone. She had a clue about the reasons why he wanted to marry her – and they weren’t good enough.

“No,” she said firmly, turning away.

So that was what his kisses had been about. His passionate ministrations…all that part of a ploy to soften her up for this?

Well, Keyonna told herself he wasn’t going to seduce her into marrying him so he could secure his precious fortune.

“Do you think I’m fooling around?” Nick growled, gripped her elbow and spinning her around so she had to look up into his face. “Do you think I’m asking you on a whim?”

Keyonna held his gaze squarely. “Why
are
you asking me, Nick?”

Keyonna realized she had to hear it from him. Wanted to know if he could be completely straight with her. For some reason, that meant a great deal.

Nick hesitated, his eyes boring darkly into hers. And then he shrugged, releasing her as he let out an angry sigh. “I need a wife. As soon as possible. Because if I don’t get married in five weeks’ time, everything I own; all I’ve ever worked for, will be going up in smoke. My inheritance will end up being given all to charity – I’ll be left with nothing,” he said factually.

Keyonna let out a ragged sigh of relief. He didn’t look pleased having to come clean, but she could tell he felt some kind of relief at finally being able to lay it on the table.

“And you picked me,” she said more than asked, unable to keep the slight sarcasm from her tone.

“No, Keyonna,
you
picked me,” Nick said, his eyes suddenly flashing with irritation as he spun to face her. “My life was going fine until you decided to pull that kissing stunt at the dinner party. I would easily have settled for Rachel, but you blew it and I think it’s only fair that you should at least attempt to make things right. Don’t you?” His brow lifted in a mocking ‘V’ that made Keyonna bristle.

Shoving her hair back, she let out a ‘whoosh’. “Look. I’m really sorry about…everything. But there’s no way I’ll…”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t be asking you to do this if there wasn’t so much at stake,” he said in a cold tone that reminded her of the old Nick; the forbidding, untouchable and ice-cold Nick that made something twist deep within her chest. A shiver of foreboding crossed through her and she hugged her arms to herself.

“You called me a tyrant,” Nick said coolly. “Well, that’s exactly what my father was. Apparently, he intended to teach me a lesson after some long ago imagined slight. He knew I’d do anything to hold on to what’s my birthright. He certainly made me work hard enough all these years to earn it. I was never given any special treatment for being the boss’s only son; in fact I had to prove myself even harder than everyone else to get to the heights I reached.” A thin, mirthless smile crossed his lips. “Do you really think I’d be willing to give that all up?”

Keyonna threw her hands up helplessly. “But what has all that got to do with me? You saw what went on between my ex and I the other night. If I could turn down my one-time boyfriend, whom incidentally I trust and know from way back, why would I say yes to marrying you, a near-perfect stranger?” Keyonna shook her head. “Mark’s marriage proposal was difficult enough to accept but yours is totally impossible.”

“Why impossible?” Nick asked with a thoughtful frown. “Am I that detestable?”

“That’s not the point,” Keyonna said through tight lips. “You and I…we aren’t even friends. And let’s face it, I know there’re tons of females out there who’d gladly fill up the vacant post.”

“But it’s not them I want, is it?” Nick rumbled. He reached out and wrapped his hand snugly around her wrist and tugged her hard against him. Keyonna swallowed with difficulty and strained away as much as his steel hold would allow. As her heart rate increased alarmingly at his closeness, Keyonna wondered if she’d ever be immune to his overwhelming magnetism. She only had to look at him and she desired him – felt weak to resist his physical as well as psychological dominance. But even as he brought out the submissive nature hidden beneath her tough shell, resist him she would…